Best in Upstate: Takeaways from Super Bowl LII for high school athletes

Sports columnist John Moriello drew parallels to high school sports and Super Bowl LII.

Maggie Gilroy / Staff video

John Moriello, who has been an ardent follower and commentator on New York high school sports for decades, is writing a weekly column called "Best In Upstate," which is designed to fly above all of the state sectional borders. You can reach John at nysswa@gmail.com or @nysswa on Twitter. He oversees the New York State Sportswriters Association web page of high school rankings.

The second-worst mistake a reporter can make with the subject of a story probably is to misquote the person.

What advice would Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles give to his daughter Lily? Here are ...more

What advice would Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles give to his daughter Lily? Here are some suggestions from John Moriello: Be prepared, Be Versatile and Explore All Your Options.

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

The worst mistake would be mis-paraphrasing them.

Gisele Bundchen (aka Mrs. Tom Brady) would like us to believe she was misquoted after her husband's team lost Super Bowl LII on Sunday when the Brazilian supermodel and actress was heard telling one of her children, "Their whole life, (the Eagles) never won a Super Bowl. You have to let someone else win sometimes."

Perhaps the nosy person listening in did in fact misquote Bundchen. But sorry, no. She wasn't mis-paraphrased.

Just by virtue of working in the entertainment industry for much of her life, Bundchen should have known she was an easy target of critics even if her intent — comforting her distraught child — was right.

Consider it a lesson presumably learned.

But what about high school athletes? Were there any takeaways from the season-ending football game that might serve them well in the future? Yes, there most certainly were.

Be prepared

Nick Foles was backup equipment until Week 14, when Philadelphia quarterback Carson Wentz suffered a torn ACL. All Foles did the following two weeks in place of the man who was contending for league MVP honors was throw for a total of 400 yards with five touchdowns and just one interception.

In three postseason games, Foles rolled up 971 passing yards with six TDs and one interception. He was also the first QB to throw for and catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl en route to being named the most valuable player.

It was a more than commendable performance on the big stage, but just a one-off and too small a sample size to take to heart, right?

Wrong. Four weeks earlier, Alabama defeated Georgia 26-23 in overtime for the FBS championship after changing quarterbacks at halftime. True freshman Tua Tagovailoa finished 14 of 24 for 166 yards with three TDs and one interception. In the process, he may have wrestled the No. 1 spot on the depth chart away from one of the Southeastern Conference's best QBs when the Crimson Tide begins spring practice.

SportsPulse: Nick Foles, among the unlikeliest of Super Bowl heroes, gave his thoughts on how failure has helped him succeed, and then on his future in Philadelphia.

USA TODAY Sports

Two huge games won by two backup quarterbacks. Don't you dare think for a moment that either prepared by sitting in the back of the film room doing crossword puzzles or texting friends while the starter was breaking down defenses with the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

It's doubtful either backup took more than 20 percent of the snaps during practices leading up to their big chance, but you can be sure they took every one of those snaps seriously and tried to show perfect form on every throw.

Be versatile

An analysis by TrackingFootball.com in the lead-up to the Super Bowl claimed that 96 percent of the players on the Eagles and Patriots competed in multiple sports while in high school. More than a third of them played more than two sports.

Of the 106 players on the rosters, 58 percent competed in track and field, 43 percent in basketball and 13 percent in baseball. Lacrosse was the next most-cited sport at 7 percent.

The website pointed to four studies released last year that concluded that specialization does more harm than good, but it's indisputable that club sports and the growth of the personal trainers industry have swayed players and parents who are willing to gamble that focusing on one sport increases the odds of playing in Division I sports as a means of paying for college.

Share This Gallery

Explore all of your options

I'd forgotten that Foles was a highly regarded basketball player as a student in Texas and was recruited by several Division I programs. That gave him a slew of options even before factoring in his potential in football.

He attended the same high school as Drew Brees and broke several of the school records set by the current New Orleans Saints quarterback, giving him even more options in football.

Foles settled on football in the Big Ten as his best path forward, but it didn't work out. He left Michigan State after one season and landed at Arizona, sat out a year and then beat out the presumed starter early in the next season.

Ten thousand passing yards later, he was a third-round pick of the Eagles in the 2012 NFL Draft.

The moral of the story is that he kept his options open each step of the way. He picked what proved to be the right sport — just at the wrong school — and was mature enough to re-evaluate, concede that he'd made a mistake and take a brief step backward to get to where he ultimately wanted to be.

Somewhat related to that tale, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson went from journeyman backup QB (522 NFL passing attempts in 14 pro seasons) to a high school coach in order to get his foot in the door. The story of his rapid rise in prominence at Calvary Baptist Academy in Louisiana was told and re-told last month as the Eagles progressed through the playoffs.

Just by virtue of holding clipboards and headsets for all those years in the NFL, Pederson was qualified to latch on as an assistant at the college or pro level. But by rolling up his sleeves and turning a young scholastic program into a state powerhouse in his four years there, he showed commitment and determination that made him even more marketable.

In rapid succession after that, he worked his way up Andy Reid's coaching depth chart in Philadelphia and Kansas City before the Eagles took a chance on him as head coach in January 2016.

If it was said once on Twitter in the hours after the Super Bowl, it was probably said a thousand times: How many meddling parents who doubted Pederson's qualifications the first year or two in Louisiana are bragging now that their sons played for the coach of the world champions?

Two more thoughts

These are more along the lines of observations rather than lessons high school athletes may have learned while watching the Super Bowl:

► Patriots receiver Brandin Cooks was blindsided by Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins after making a reception in the second quarter and did not return to the game. There was no flag thrown for the hit, which contained some helmet-to-helmet contact, nor should there have been.

And that's a problem for the NFL and for football in general. The Super Bowl is the viewing event of the year, attracting casual fans and even those who don't watch the sport at all the other 364 days of the year.

I'd guess a fair share of those viewers are parents. I'd also guess that they watched the hit Cooks took in real time and then ad nauseam in slow motion and decided that their children will be encouraged to give cross country or soccer a try in junior high school rather than football.

A recently released NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 46 percent of parents would discourage their children from playing football due to concerns about concussion. When the same poll was conducted in 2014, only 37 percent said they would steer their kids away from the sport.

Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benedetto has been proposing for several years now to ban tackle football for children under 14, but he's yet to find someone to sponsor the New York State Senate version of the bill. It's reasonable to wonder if Jenkins' hit on Cooks will change that.

► Politicians in Georgia are proposing a law making video replay technology mandatory in high school playoff games to correct calls missed by game officials.

Good luck with that. Like the other broadcast networks, NBC used an army of camera operators positioned all over the stadium in Minneapolis last weekend. And even with all of that technology available, reviews upheld two touchdown calls that probably half the country still believes were wrong.

Thinking a crew with four or even six cameras at high school games is going to clear up questionable calls is nothing more than dreaming.

The politicians in Georgia should spend more time fixing Common Core and less time dabbling in kids games.